On a small photo trip with a friend. Trying to hunt some yellow dandelion flowers. But as often it happens, we quickly deviated from the subject and photographed anything that we found interesting. (more…)

I had a chance to try the Samyang 500mm lens. If you are not familiar with photographic lenses, all you need to know about this lens is that it’s like putting on a 20-prescription glasses. The Samyang lenses don’t have auto-focus, and due to the long focal distance photographing hand holding the camera is a pretty bold thing to do. Most of the images will get blurred, some because the camera shake and the rest due to improper focusing. On any given internet site, you get advises to bring along a tripod, and with image enlarged in the live view screen, set the proper focus. Good advice, but instead of a tripod I had to take my dog Jane for a walk, and also didn’t see much on the screen because of the sunshine. The solution was that I shot several images and put them together later in a panorama creator. In short, the lens can be used. It can be done even hand holding the camera. Just be patient. Wildlife photography is not an easy thing without auto-focus. Unfortunately I couldn’t try it because my dog, Jane noticed the deer much sooner than me, and I have left with shouting after the dog to stop chasing them.

The full moon after the spring equinox brings cold and snow to the mountains of Gheorgheni. The white snow acts as a light diffuser scattering the moonlight all over the landscape. After a little time, the eyes get used to the dark and you can see almost as it was daylight. The camera collects even more light than the human eye. I suppose this is how the creatures of the forest can see at night. As there is always good and bad, light fills the landscape but the stars are faint . Winter still stands ,but spring is here.

A small Sunday trip to the nearby town, were we found an old Trabant. Photos taken on fomapan b&w film with a Kiev 80 middle format camera, and the third one with a Moskva 5, middle format rangefinder.

Photos from last week, from the 12th to the 18th of January. The first one shows The Milky Way above Kilyenfalva (Harghita county, Romania).

This was shot at dawn, on my way to the Bucsin Pass. There is a clearing in the forest, just enough to take a photo of the Gyergyo Basin. Though at higher altitudes we had clear sky, the fog persisted in the basin all day long, making the city even colder.

The ones below were made today, near Tekeropatak and Vaslab.

Luckily we still have deer in the wild. They are indifferent while you are driving, but as soon as you put on the brake, or open the car door, all of them are gone. They don’t run too far, just some hundred meters away, but all they show you afterwards are their white backsides.

I managed to make a few photos with my moskva 5. Well it’s a hard case. After repairing the focus, now I realized that, the film, due to its big size doesn’t sit flat on the back. so a few out of focus parts can be seen on almost all of the photos. But it’s a work in progress…